The Kila Apartment

The apartment's whole reason for being is one window, two metres wide, that holds the tomb's main dome dead centre at eye level. Everything in the room is arranged to keep that rectangle clear — seating low and pulled back, no curtains, only an internal oak shutter for the summer glare.

The walls are lime washed in a deep indigo mixed on site, darker at the base and lifting towards the ceiling. Against it, the sandstone outside reads almost pink at six in the evening.

One wall of pale oak shelving runs the length of the living and dining space, deep enough for books at the bottom and objects above. It is the single largest built element and the one the clients specifically asked to be permanent — a fixed point for a life that keeps relocating.

A brass rail and a light ladder let them reach the top. The lighting is integrated into the shelf edge, warm and even, so the wall works as the room's main light source after dark.

The kitchen is small and open to the dining table. We lined the working wall in black-and-ochre Chettinad tile — a pattern the client grew up with in the south — and kept everything else quiet: pale oak fronts, a single honed stone counter, brass hardware from Moradabad.

Appliances are hidden behind full-height doors so that, with the kitchen closed, the room reads as another part of the library.

The indigo continues into the bedroom, where it makes the room feel like the inside of an envelope. The bed is low, on a pale oak platform with integrated side tables so nothing else is needed on the floor.

Two Moradabad brass wall lights on dimmers do all the work. A vintage Deccan dhurrie — one of the few things that travels with the couple — sets the colour for whatever bedding comes out of the container.

The bathroom is tiled floor to ceiling in a slightly irregular blue zellige that catches the light differently on every surface. A single round brass mirror, a stone shelf, a brass shower set — and nothing else, because there is no room for anything else and none is wanted.

It is the smallest room in the apartment and the one guests always mention.